The Ceasefire: Unconditional Surrender by Israel

At the beginning of Israel's war with Hezbollah, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert vowed to return kidnapped IDF soldiers, to dismantle the terror army over Israel's northern border, and to ensure that it would not return to carry out cross-border attacks and have the capacity to terrorize citizens of the north.

After passage of the U.N. Security Council resolution Friday night, we can see clearly that none of Israel's aims were met.

1. The Hezbollah government ministers stated at yesterday's cabinet meeting (in Lebanon) that Hezbollah will not disarm


2. No one is actually tasked with disarming Hezbollah which means it won't happen


3. Both the question of an arms embargo and Hizbullah's dismantlement are put off to some future date


4. The power to oversee an arms embargo against Hizbullah in the hands of the Lebanese government, of which Hizbullah is a member


5. The resolution makes no operative call for the return of the 2 captured soldiers. This is so bad, that one of the government ministers claimed on the radio that there must be a secret agreement about this.


6. It reopens the Shaba Farms dispute and lets Kofi Anan be the arbiter


7. Unifil, which has been in Lebanon for the past 28 years will continue to be there and will be the force to see that the ceasefire is carried out. Anyone who believes that Unifil will actually do anything to Hezbollah, I have a bridge to sell you

Ehud Olmert said the following in a June 2005 address to the Israel Policy Forum in New York:

We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want to be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies.

It is no wonder that with a leader like Olmert we lost the war.